Redundancy 6/8

Jennifer Jane flew back to the Witches’ Home in a thoughtful mood. She was sure she could remember the growing spell she’d used trying to improve the crops so long ago. Funnily enough she’d thought of it only a few weeks ago while she was having a laugh with her dad. Oh well if it didn’t work she could always ask Abigail, or go back to the library to make sure she’d remembered correctly. She hurried back to the workshop in great excitement.

“I think I’ve got the answer, can I borrow a carved tooth please. George thinks rich people might buy the carvings if they were bigger. If I make one bigger using magic then the problem should be solved.”

Neither Robert nor her dad looked particularly convinced, but she was handed a sample and placed it carefully on a bench. She put a magical boundary round it and twiddled the spell, without using any of the showmanship that was supposed to be used in front of anyone who wasn’t a witch or wizard. Nothing happened!

“I’m sure I’ve got the spell right,” she said after a moment’s silence. “I think there must be a difference between spells that make things grow more quickly and spells that make things get larger.” She thought carefully back through her magical adventures for a minute, while her audience waited anxiously. “Of course, I remember now, the spell I really want is the one I used to make Arthur’s food payments get bigger.”

She tried again using the new twiddle and the tiny carved vase grew to become about nine inches high.

Robert picked it up with a happy smile on his face and immediately started to look miserable again. He put the enlarged vase on the bench then stood back to let everyone else have a look at it. It was nice enough in a crude way, but it certainly wasn’t anything to be proud of. The enlargement made the tooth look cracked and coarse, while the carving seemed to have been done with a blunt knife that had left lots of chipped edges.

“Well one thing’s for sure, nobody is going to pay for that!”

Jennifer Jane thought for a moment then took an uncarved tooth from the pile and enlarged it using the same spell. They all waited anxiously while Robert mounted it in his lathe and made another attempt to carve a similar vase. After half an hour’s work he placed it beside the other one on the bench. At least it was an improvement. Although the material still looked the same, this time the carving appeared to be much neater.

“Now I’m sure that would be saleable, if only the material was more like the consistency of ivory,” said Dave, “but even if it was, then I don’t think you’d make any profit. The extra size means there’s too much material to remove and that takes a lot of time!”

“There must be something we can do with a lot of teeth,” said Mary, “but I’m blessed if I can think of anything other than jewellery!”

“I’ll take the enlarged carvings and give them to George,” said Jennifer Jane, “perhaps he’ll have a bit more luck once the customers can see a full sized object.”

Everyone agreed that was the best thing they could do, but none of them sounded very hopeful. Robert and Polly were looking miserably at each other and holding hands as if was going to be the last chance they ever have.